"It's the best loading shovel we've had..."

13/02/2018
By Mark Gunns

Is the verdict of Murray Brodie, Fleet & Plant Service Manager for Central Demolition Ltd, Bonnybridge, as he reflects on the performance of the company’s Volvo L90F and its L90H wheeled loader delivered in June 2017.

Ten years and 21,000 hours after purchasing a Volvo L90F, Central Demolition Ltd of Bonnybridge, Falkirk has added the latest L90H long boom model for its recycling facility – based on the reliable and consistent performance of its predecessor. “In my opinion, the Volvo has been the best loading shovel we’ve had on the fleet in terms of reliability, performance and operator acceptance,” says Murray Brodie. “Our ten-year old L90F has clocked up 21,000 hours on its original powertrain components and hasn’t put a foot wrong, so choosing the latest H-variant as our workload increases was a simple one. And since we took delivery of the machine in June, once again the Volvo brand is living up to its reputation for quality, performance and most importantly – reliability,” he continues.

The new 12-tonne loading shovel has been supplied complete with the long boom option, solid wheel and tyre assemblies, RDS weigh loader and a 2.4m³ general purpose straight-lipped bucket. “Both the size of the machine and especially the size of the bucket are the key to handling the variety, weight and density of the materials arriving here on site,” explains Murray Brodie. “Here at our recycling yard, we receive a whole variety of material ranging from that coming from our demolition contracts – concrete, bricks, wood, soils, etc, as well as inert industrial waste arriving by our fleet of skip lorries and 8x4 hook lift container lorries. The L90H is the optimum sized loading shovel for accessing every area of the recycling yard including the sorting bins.”

The L90H supplied to Central Demolition Ltd is powered by a Volvo Stage-IV final Volvo 6-litre engine, developing 186 nett hp with a maximum torque of 853Nm at just 1,400rpm. The machine also benefits from Volvo designed and manufactured driveline components, designed to offer considerable fuel savings each shift. Fuel savings are further enhanced by the Volvo Eco-pedal, encouraging the operator to run the machine at its optimum rpm in the engine’s torque curve. The optional long boom provides an extra 430mm of load over height under the tipped bucket with a generous full turn tipping load of 8,000kg.

The L90H is in charge of a whole range of duties at the company’s recycling facility from loading incoming material into the primary crusher, separating commodities, rehandling and stock piling processed materials from the wash plant, clearing the bays under the sorting station and finally loading material out onto wagons. The machine will normally work a ten-hour daily shift and is doing its part to recycle up to 97% of all incoming material to the facility. It joins the existing L90F shovel which is still going strong and around a dozen Volvo excavators ranging from 8 tonnes up to 46 tonnes, all specified for demolition duties and high reach applications.

In all, Central Demolition Ltd operates 104 items of mobile equipment along with 32 road-going lorries including articulated lorries, low loaders, 8x4 rigid tippers and hook lifts and skip lorries, and 65 vans of various sizes for use by machine operators, demolition crews and mobile engineers. Established in 1993, Central Demolition is a demolition, asbestos removal and recycling contractor serving clients throughout the UK.

SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products which include wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in Great Britain. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres, a dedicated National Used Equipment Centre and a network of utility equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.